Jagmeet Singh says the process of the two-week trial of Gerald Stanley didn’t do anything to address concerns about systemic racism in Canada’s justice system.

The NDP leader’s remarks are his first on the matter since publishing a tweet early Saturday morning, following news the Saskatchewan farmer had been found not guilty by an all-white jury in the killing of Colten Boushie, a young Indigenous man.

In the tweet, Singh said “there was no justice for Colten Boushie.”

“The core process didn’t result in justice for that life that was taken, there wasn’t an addressing of systemic racism,” he said Tuesday in a press conference on Parliament Hill. “The result of this case has continued and perpetuated this feeling that Indigenous lives don’t have value and that’s an injustice.”

“The criminal justice system has not satisfied people’s concerns around that … they’re left feeling that that’s exactly the case … that a young person can be killed and nothing can happen from it.”

Stanley was charged with second-degree murder after Boushie, a 22-year-old resident of the Red Pheasant First Nation, was shot in the back in the head.

Singh’s comments came as Boushie’s family met with cabinet ministers in Ottawa. A group of relatives met with the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett and Indigenous Services Minister Monday. They are meeting with Justice Minister and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today.

The family is pushing for changes to the way jurors are selected. The defence in the Stanley trial rejected several Indigenous people during the jury selection process using peremptory challenges, which permit attorneys to reject a certain number of jurors without providing a reason.

During his press conference, Singh cited underrepresentation on juries as a concrete issue that should be addressed. He announced he is considering whether his party should push to abolish the use of those challenges, saying they can result in a jury that doesn’t accurately reflect the entire community.

“I’ve looked at this and I’m considering whether we should take a position on abolishing peremptory challenges,” he said. “I haven’t made that decision yet, but it’s definitely a discussion we need to have.”

A criminal defence lawyer before entering politics, Singh said he used peremptory challenges in jury selection to form a diverse group of jurors.

“I wanted to have more people of colour and more people of diverse backgrounds, so I would’ve challenged someone who wasn’t diverse to ensure there was more diversity on the jury.”

Wilson-Raybould said Monday that peremptory challenges will be among the potential changes the Liberal government “will look into” as they review Canada’s justice system.

With files from The Canadian Press

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Clearly Singh did not review the testimony and evidence presented at trial before he came to his clearly biased opinion on the matter. There was no claim at trial of racism being involved in the death of the young man who was part of a drunken crime spree, so why would the trial be expected to address “systemic racism”. I’m not even sure what he means when he says that the trial should have addressed ‘systemic racism’.

Sincere respect to the Boushie family…and my heart goes out for the loss of Colten, this trial was a race issue with Indigenous issues masking a greater problem: as long as we have people of colour seemingly absent the jury pool, but identified as perpetrators (Blacks carded) there is a HUGE problem in our judicial system. There should have been a selection of people on that Saskatchewan jury..Indigenous, Multi-race in a multi-cultural country, and if it couldn’t be found, the jury should have been moved. It is an example of blatant racism to have an all white jury judge an Indigenous person, and it becomes a class issue when white people try to defend a crime on the basis of property defence. The legal system works as a holding to account by one’s peers, so, obviously, it isn’t working if there is just a group of white people holding everyone else responsible.

While I entirely understand the impetus of fixating on only one side of this debate, and while my heart goes out to anyone who loses a son or daughter to such a random, pointless act, it IS okay for us to look deeper at this problem and I do wish the politicians would be more balanced and pander less.

The only politician at this time that I feel got the balance was Robert-Falcon Ouellette. His interview demonstrated a deep understanding of the region and how it’s issues led to this horrible tragedy.

You cannot on one hand excuse the rampant armed looting and drunk driving by First Nations because of “colonialism” and then pretend all that crime doesn’t impact everyone else. The reasons why a farmer might be so afraid for himself and his family that he ends up shooting people are certainly much deeper than “racism” and ignores the specific situation going on in rural Saskatchewan.

Crime is out of control there. Living in fear of constant intrusion and thuggery by armed, drunken young men is a legitimate concern that you can’t down play because “racism”. That this reality has long existed in rural Saskatchewan and long been ignored is the reason this sort of thing happens in the first place.

I promise you that you will get nowhere, and no changes to the legal system will help, if you do not deal with the actual cause of the problem.